Chocolate Coconut Rochers-Blogger Catch up !

It's five days after Thanksgiving and I'm still surrounded by the holiday glow and love from family and friends.  Come to think of it I'm always enveloped by that love-it's my awareness of it that becomes heightened by the holidays. Resolve-to remind myself daily of how fortunate and blessed I am and how thankful I am for family and friends and their love and support.

I had to celebrate the official Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, the 28th  this year.  Fortunately I have a family that understands my work schedule-I had to work on Thanksgiving-you know -the travel industry is pretty much round the clock and the boat had to get to Victoria, BC.  But it's not a date on the calendar that dictates when to give thanks, it's what is in our hearts every single day of the year. And I will say it again, I am thankful for the love of my sweetie, my sister and dear brother and brother in law and all the people who touch my life with love and support.  We had a lovely celebration at my sister's house.  The meal was delicious , as it always is.  Turkey being the centerpiece-what a surprise.  We had an incredible crab dip and beef empanadas made by my talented sister.  A huge selection of fresh baked breads brought by my brother, stuffing, sweet sweet sweet potato gratin (hey sis email me the recipe), tart cranberries, and the list goes on. Oh and by the way, the Larger than Life Pecan Praline cheesecake was a hit-this is what was left of it.  Thanks to Rebecca Rather , The Pastry Queen for such a scrumptious recipe.

Spiced pumpkin cheesecake on a gingersnap crust, topped with Pecan Praline

 I'm very grateful that we were all in a position to put this food on the table and share with each other and friends .  Did you see the NY Times photo display from around the world-it's kind of reassuring to see , that no matter who we are or where we are, we are all grateful and thankful , and celebrating in a similar way.

This month has been hectic for me, besides having to work the holiday I'm embarrassed that I haven't kept up with my blogging. I missed my Daring Bakers challenge , hosted by Simona of briciole . I also missed my MacTweets challenge this month.  I feel like such a bad blogger.  I will make the deadline for my Chocolate with Francois group-with this posting.  And I resolve to do much better next month.  I am proud of what I did do this month-participated in the Will Bake for Food Bake Sale-a rousing success. And I kicked off a new baking group (yes I can hear you-what she can't keep up with the groups she belongs to and she started a new one !) Baked Sunday Mornings , and I completed one of the four recipes for French Fridays with Dorie.  So I'm not a horrible blogging community member-but I will work on my planning skills for December and promise to do better!

Now that all my excuses are out of the way, I give you my entry for this month's Chocolate with Francois.  Joanne at Apple Crumbles is the hostess with the mostest this month and chose Francois's Chocolate Coconut Rochers . Thank goodness this was not a complicated recipe. The most challenging thing was finding the unsweetened coconut.  The photos in the book for this recipe look all warm and brown and toasty-I'm not sure what type of cocoa (or camera filter) was used to make them look like that, but mine did not have that lovely tawny glow.  They did have an excellent, addictive taste. They reminded me of a candy I grew up with in Pennsylvania-The Mallo Cup. After  you sucked out all the creamy marshmallow inside a Mallo Cup you had a  crunchy coconut chocolate shell.  When I bit into these and I was 12 years old again with my favorite candy bar.

Try the recipe (of course you have to buy the book-Chocolate Epiphany -to find the recipe),or head over to Joanne's blog to find it there.  And since it's getting close to the holidays- these would make a lovely little Christmas food gift for neighbors. Bon Appetit !